Sullivan Carriage House — on its original site

A few months ago, I helped staffer Jessica Elizarraras with research for her story about restaurants housed in buildings that had once served other purposes.

While doing that research, I discovered that the Sullivan Carriage House, now housing a restaurant at the San Antonio Botanical Garden, had once stood on property at 4th St. and Broadway. Given that the former Light building is at McCullough (5th St.) and Broadway, I felt I had a vested interest in figuring out if it was on the corner that is now one of our parking lots.

Further research showed the main Sullivan House, home to banker Daniel Sullivan, had been torn down in 1971 for a Light parking lot (so, yes, it was catty-corner to the Word Factory). According to Lewis F. Fisher’s Saving San Antonio, the Conservation Society had been concerned about the Carriage House since then. They eventually agreed to let the Hearst Corporation move the Carriage House.

I dug through our files hoping to find a photo of the Carriage House while it was still on the Light property, and I had just about given up when, a few weeks later, I came across a box that had mysteriously appeared in “the vault.” In the box was a file containing Light materials, including these two color slides:

The slides were not labeled, so we do not know who took the photos or when they were taken, but I knew I’d hit the jackpot. Given the car in the photos, they were probably taken toward the end of the building’s time there. The Light used the building for paper roll storage at one point.

In the background of the top photo is the building that once held the Light presses, and that we now use for storage. The top of the former Light office building can be seen in the bottom photo.

The Witte Museum had agreed to take the Carriage House, but was unable to raise the funds to do so, and the Museum in turn gave the house to the Botanical Garden in 1987. A fully restored Carriage House was opened in 1995 in its new location.

Coincidentally, Downtown Blogger Ben Olivo reports that the owner of the Esquire Tavern has purchased the “fish market” building at E. Commerce St. and N. St. Mary’s St. One of those buildings, the Sullivan Bank, is named for the very same Daniel Sullivan, whose business was there.